


Beach (바닷가)

by via_ostiense



Series: Tennis no Ojisama 45 [2]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-08-14
Updated: 2004-08-14
Packaged: 2017-10-17 01:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/171200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/pseuds/via_ostiense
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Riptide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beach (바닷가)

When Momo is young, his parents take him to the ocean. He has pictures, he even thinks he remembers being sick during the first drive from Tokyo. The dizziness caused by the bumping bus ride is blown away with the first rough, briny breeze. The ocean smells of wet, kelp, sand, salt, and something that Momo can’t name. There are many pictures: toddler Momo chasing seagulls, determined to catch one and make it his pet; slightly older Momo kicking wet sand to see it spray through the air and fall into the glittering tide; child Momo bobbing among deep green waves in a neon yellow inner tube. He definitely recalls the day that the last picture’s from, because that was the last time his parents took him to the ocean.

For an eight-year-old, Momoshiro is a strong swimmer. He wants to see if he can swim all the way to Shikoku, he knows he can do it, he’s a strong boy. He’s been bobbing in his inner tube, kicking his way from shore out into the wide, open sea. He turns to wave at his parents and smiles extra-wide for them—they’ll be so proud, he’ll be the first eight-year-old to swim from Tokyo to Shikoku—when a big wave comes out of nowhere and seizes him.

The tide rips him from his inner tube and straight down to the bottom of the sea. He flails, sight blurred by salt and water, and is lost in clouds of white bubbles. Up is left is right is down is confusion and panic should be loud and full of screams but underwater the whole world is silent. Blood pounds through his head in time to the pounding in his lungs and the noise makes Momo think he’ll explode from trying to hold it in. One of his feet bangs against a rock and this must be down, so Momo pushes in the opposite direction and this must be up, please let it be up and to the air. His vision swirls with black and red and he kicks hard toward the shimmering surface so far above. His heart wants to explode and his lungs are shriveling. The air is beyond his reach and it looks so close but he isn’t reaching it—his arm breaks through suddenly and he thrashes until his head follows and he gasps, drawing in air without exhaling until he’s dizzy. The tide pushes Momo to shore and he floats in to his parents.

The first time Inui kisses him, Momo is lost like he was as a child in the sea. Not during the kiss itself, that’s all physical, instinctive response—he’s been with girls before—and he can still breathe. But before, when Inui fixes him against the wall with his eyes and moves so close that the shadows of his face cancel out the reflective glare of his glasses. Momo looks straight through them at Inui’s eyes, and his breath hitches in his lungs. He’s too close, his fingers on his face are too intimate, and his eyes are so, so dark and he’s moving closer. Momo’s never been so close to a boy before and so aware of it, so afraid and tense that he wants to bolt. But he can’t move, can’t think, can only watch and wait for the tide to drag him away from shore.


End file.
